Levi Nanninga

As assistant service manager, I had to assume responsibility of my department and my service technicians, while ensuring my customers fair and easy service. My base skills before assuming this position for this company were, sales, customer service, product knowledge and inventory awareness. I was also tasked with giving out work orders to the technicians responsible for completing jobs on the yard and on the road. When I was appointed to assistant service manager, I took up more responsibilities including, shift management, on call availability and bonus tracking. More often than not, I was the sole manager for my department as the service manager had medical issues that were taking precedence most days, which left me alone, or training someone to help in my role. I learned very quickly the importance of proper planning, and flexibility due to unforeseen circumstances. During my time at Parrish Tire Company, I had been told the department ran the smoothest it had been; customers taken care of in a timely manner, all while battling at odds with lack of support and poor service technician aptitude.

Before I was RPP for Advance, I was a key holder, in charge of counting money, opening and closing, and left as manager on duty for most later shifts. The focus of this job for me was gaining general knowledge about diagnostics, mechanics, and parts, and use that knowledge to give my customer an easier time with their purchase. I was either helping them diagnose an issue, or sourcing a part for a known issue. I learned during this job along side working on my first car, and that helped my knowledge grow exponentially. I also had to learn inventory control and a general knowledge of store layout, not just to point customers in the right direction of products, but to make it faster while I retrieved parts from our stock. I had proven my skills in these areas, enough to be promoted to RPP, which gave me a more floor sales position. I worked to increase sales among myself and other employees, and in our area, that really meant training my crew to be knowledgeable about the parts they sold. As RPP, I also gained new responsibility as to be at the store in cases where there were call outs and a shift needed to be covered, I also had to ensure the store opened/closed every day and in a timely matter. There were many times were I set down my plans to cover a shift.